Conference

Student Movements and Social Justice: Histories and Futures

Tue, Mar 10, 2026

9:30 AM–5:00 PM

Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY Graduate Center. This conference is free and open to the public. Registration required.

Krulwich, Sara, "City University Students at Federal Hall in 1989 protesting a proposed tuition increase.” Courtesy of CUNY Digital History Archive

The conference brings together organizers from university-based organizations working for free education, affordable housing, cops off campus, campus labor, accessible childcare, Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, and other struggles, to think, strategize, and build relationships across siloed struggles and disparate geographies.

The conference will feature four panels and a keynote conversation. Two panels will bring together student organizers from struggles outside the US. The first looks at historical struggles, including the 1999 UNAM strike in Mexico City, Fees Must Fall in South Africa, and the 2012 Quebec student strike. The second focuses on contemporary struggles in Bangladesh, Italy, Nepal, Serbia, and Sri Lanka. There will also be a panel on campus policing and abolitionist university studies, historicizing the present conjuncture. Finally, a panel on CUNY struggles from 1969 until today will root the conference in our local surroundings at the largest urban public university in the nation. Our keynote conversation will focus on the state of Palestinian universities and ways American students and academic workers can stand in solidarity with our colleagues in Gaza and the West Bank.

This conference is fully open to the public, and we invite all students, faculty, staff, community organizers, and wider publics to join us. Register here.

Coffee and light snacks will be provided, and we will share nearby lunch options for you to gather together!

Check back for the full program, schedule of panels, and list of speakers.

If you are a student or currently organizing on campuses and are interested in attending a student-focused workshop on Monday, March 9th, focused on praxis-oriented political education, please email [email protected].

This conference is co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities, the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics (CPCP), and Scholars for Social Justice.